CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
27 
4. Anomocarpus. 
I have already alluded to this genus, which differs from all 
others of this order in many esssential characters. The inflo- 
rescence generally consists of a single head of a few florets 
standing upon a very short peduncle, in each axil of the dicho- 
tomously branching stems; the involucre is thin, membrana- 
ceous, cup-shaped, divided half-way down into a 5-toothed 
border, its receptacle being reduced to a small point scarcely 
larger than the summit of the peduncle, and in some instances 
quite void of palese. The achsenia are remarkably dissimilar in 
form ; in some the calycine lobes retain their original shape, or 
become almost obsolete, while in others they become greatly 
elongated into subulate, rigid, concave, straight, patent, and 
almost spinose expansions : hence the generic name, derived 
from avofio^, inaqualis; /rapTro?, fructus. This habit prevails 
in the three first-mentioned species; but in the fourth the 
stems disappear, the plant becoming completely depressed and 
csespitose ; the cauline leaves thus come to be entirely radical 
and radiating, each bearing upon its petiole an almost sessile 
capitulum, the whole plant forming a somewhat hemispherical 
head, as in the genus Nastanthus. This species is the Calycera 
pulvinata of Remy, from whose description it formerly appeared 
to me to constitute a new genus, which I suggested under the 
name of Discophtjtum (Lindl. Veg. Kingd. 703), agreeing with 
Nastanthus in its peculiar habit, and approaching Anomocarpus in 
other respects. Subsequently I obtained a sight of the plant, 
and its examination convinced me that it agrees perfectly with 
the latter genus in its floral and carpological structure, and is 
dissimilar in no respect except in its habit, which is entirely due 
to the complete depression of its axis, by which it is reduced to 
csespitose proportions. Each capitulum represents a depressed 
branch, its leaves, thus approximated, assume a campanular in- 
volucral form, being accreted at their base into a broad shallow 
cup supported upon a short stipe, with a border of foliaceous 
segments ; and it contains about seven distinct capitella, which 
are analogous to the short scapes, each bearing a monocephalous 
head, seen in each axil of the stem in the typical species, but in 
this instance all are brought close together by the depression of 
the stem ; each capitulum is supported upon a short stipe, and 
consists of an involucel of five to seven linear leaflets containing 
a solitary spined achgenium in the centre, surrounded by seven 
or eight other achaenia which are quite unarmed, and all are 
supported by a small epaleaceous receptacle. Thus considered, 
the plant exhibits all the peculiar and essential characters of 
Anomocarpus. 
£ 2 
